This isn’t financially related (off-topic). Friends of ours recently had a daughter, and the infant is in the NICU. The mother (Becca) has already written on her blog about it. How, I have no idea. It’s very rough for them now. Her post is here — I’m sure you’ll see what I mean. I’m also … Read more
When you buy stocks, someone involved has to pay a commission, unless you work on the floor of the stock exchange as a trader. Licensed brokers must initiate the trade, and they get a cut. How much commission you pay for your stock purchases, however, varies widely. I’ll talk a little about four ways to … Read more
Dental expenses can be pretty minimal for years. A cleaning here, a filling there. Then, if you get hit with a crown and/or a root canal, it can run over $1,000 per tooth! Ouch! That hurts more than the dentist’s drill for me! One set of visits to my dentist cost me more than I … Read more
Around 100 people (myself included) are currently in the process of moving to another building at work. Because the new place has less storage space than the old, out of necessity we cleaned out and purged our files and “excessed” a lot of stuff. 30-year-old computer printouts, software on 5 1/4″ floppy disks (remember those?), … Read more
Maybe you’ve run across sites that give you a percentage off of your purchases for shopping through them. Or you get points or credits, which you can redeem for goodies like gift certificates and other stuff. If you don’t know how these sites can make money — after all, they’re giving you discounts and gift … Read more
This article on “Worst Wedding Gifts Ever” was impressive. (Note: Link updated to the same content from another website, as the original one is no longer available.) Not really because of the content but because it highlights just how materialistic our society is. This article is just one part of a large collection of propaganda … Read more
I ran across a couple of threads at Financial-Planning.com about Missed Fortune 101 by Douglas Andrew. If you’ve read my previous posts about this book, you know that I’m not a big fan of this book. Anyway, here are a couple of threads by financial planners — some of them very heavily credentialed — that … Read more
How about “[a]n interest-only, payment skipping/minimum-payment-option-enabled, negatively amortizing, no-money-down, no documentation, prepayment-penalizing, 3-month LIBOR 40-year adjustable-rate mortgage with a balloon?” Let’s break this down, shall we? Interest-only means that you’re not paying down the principal, the mechanism by which you reduce what you owe to the lender; Payment skipping means that any interest you would … Read more